A few days ago, a Reddit user shared a situation many FM managers have lived through: you are about to play the World Cup final and suddenly find out one of your players has retired. In this case it was Alexander Sørloth, aged 34, on the day of the final against France. Still, the post by Jokuzz reached 257 upvotes and reopened an old debate about how FM handles retirements.
An FM26 striker who hung up his boots on the worst day
Sørloth was the backup striker, and the news popped up as if nothing had happened. Even so, for the author it is the kind of thing that breaks immersion. He also noted that Ødegaard, according to the save, will leave international football in six months, aged 31.
(Captura: u/Jokuzz, r/footballmanagergames)
(Captura: u/Jokuzz, r/footballmanagergames)
It is not the first time in FM26
The comments show the problem is not new. For example, one user said his captain and best player, Eto’o, retired right after the team got through the World Cup group stage, about ten years ago. Another saw an Argentine striker leave the national team at 29, even though the team was doing well. Finally, someone recalled that in FM2006 a Czech captain retired before a semi-final, a case more than 20 years old.
Haaland was also caught out in a recent post, where he retired at 30. In other words, the list of cases is long.
What the community says about a fix in FM26
One comment suggested the problem is already fixed in FM26, or at least reduced. However, we found no official confirmation, so treat it as the community’s guess. In addition, another user recalled that about 15 years ago players delayed retirement during major tournaments. The logic existed, and it may have been lost along the way.
Our take on FM26
It is a small detail, but exactly the kind of thing that takes the fun out of a long career. So anyone who has lost a captain halfway through a World Cup knows FM is not just numbers.
